We are having a heatwave here, time to reach for some AOR in the hope that I will magically feel the Californian coastal breeze in my long, tousled locks as I cruise down 17-Mile Drive in a vintage convertible Chevvy Corvette.
It is Journey that matters in the end
Ursula K. Le Guin
The AOR-iest of all the AOR albums I own, welcome to 1981 and Journey Escape. I bought this, like an awful lot of other LPs, because it was listed on Kerrang!’s 100 best rock albums ever*, plus I liked the vaguely sci-fi cover art and the oddly Soviet wording (font? style?) on the cover.
So does the music burst forth from the speakers like a scarab-shaped spaceship punching through a Christmas bauble? well no, but that’s alright.
Escape was the first journey album to feature Jonathan Cain on keys, replacing Greg Rolie** and nobody could say they didn’t let the new boy have his head, he gets a co-write on every single cut here; mostly with Steve Perry.
And boy, did they write some fluffy radio-friendly unit shifters right here. So far, so-great- sales-figures-in-Saratoga, but what Journey have is a touch of real soul and quirkiness which is what I think elevates them at times beyond the oft-heard herd.
If it’s quirkiness you’re after then why not try the track Journey pinched from that Glee programme?
Seriously, ‘Don’t Stop Believin” is an object lesson in how not to write a rock song. So, write a big feel good chorus that everyone can sing-a-long to at sports events and then … hide it away until there’s only 50 seconds of song left to sing it in? have three completely unconnected verses, followed by a mix of instrumental bits and a pre-chorus? never follow the pre-chorus with, you know, the C-thing?
Then, most heinously of all – hide a hidden reference in the song to that evil of all evils, Canada! There is no ‘South Detroit’, there is only Windsor, Ontario. Shame on you Journey, children have sung those words!! Do you kiss your mom with that mouth Steve Perry?!
Workin' hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
For me, the total genius of the song isn’t the brilliant piano, Perry’s voice, or the excellent words of the first verse, it is that first moment when you hear Neal Schon’s guitar curling towards you, spiralling round the song at exactly 57seconds in, it feels so beautiful when it bursts at 1:05 and Steve Smith hits the beat. Not that I’ve over-listened to this song ever … you know the rest of it.
DSB is only my third favourite song on Escape. Personally I am a sucker for the geeky minor guitar heroics of ‘Stone In Love’, Schon really makes it sing out loud and yeah, there are better songs here but few as endearing.
My fave Escape is ‘Who’s Crying Now’, it is delightfully poised, beautifully sung and smooth as fuck. This is easily Steve Perry’s best vocal, everything in it and the accompaniment is simple, relaxed and classy; very much like your correspondent^. ’nuff said really.
Sadly ‘Keep On Runnin” appears to have been another victim of the G famine that afflicted the USA during the early Reagan years^*, it spends its time pretending to be a bit of a bad boy rocker, but if you look carefully you can see the price tags still on its newly bought leather jacket. ‘Still They Ride’ is much more in the Journey wheelhouse, a slightly regretful bluesy lament for somethin’, albeit with another silky vocal.
The title track is a better one, the boys rockin’ in a more muscular fashion, just. Its nice, uplifting stuff which if you’re in the right mood is a real boon, although the opposite can be true. Today I’m all in tonight and I like the way Cain uses his keys to underline Perry’s words throughout. Ditto ‘Lay It Down’ where Schon shows his chops in memorable style, probably my fave rocker here, edging out the hitman-for-hire ‘Dead Or Alive’ by a length.
One of the big tracks on Escape is the melodramatic ‘Mother, Father’ where Journey lean back into their more progressive roots. I enjoy the opening of it, but it gets a bit saccharine and musical theatre-y for me when all the harmonies kick in; a touch of rootsiness would go a long way for me here.
Obviously the only way to end Escape is a 10-minute blackened death metal grind of outrageous savagery and primitivism called ‘Desiccated Entrails Of Nihil (Yog-Sothoth Calls)’. Only joking, its a ballad covered by such metal luminaries as Barry Manilow, Celine Dion, Boyz II Men and the Carey, its wimpy but beautifully played … but I reached my ballad limit 15 minutes ago.
Escape has been a classy, if ultimately non-demanding companion this last week. It’s a fun listen, mostly, with occasional real flashes of excellence. Everyone involved in the writing, playing, production of this album is operating at the heights of their considerable powers and I do really love Steve Perry’s voice.
Like most AOR albums Escape is pop dressed up as rock and there is fuck all wrong with that*^, there is a reason why sumptuously played and expensively produced earworms sold in their gigazillions – they’re fun, they sound great on the radio and you can get a good hit of second-hand emotion off them if they catch you just right. Those are all good positive reasons to listen to music.
So tonight, let’s just glide along through that endless American night, the only lights that matter belong to the red glow of your FM radio as you sing along to songs of regret and expectation tracing the trajectory of your last love and your next. I’ll take that.
1325 Down.
PS: apologies to Ursula K. Le Guin for doctoring her wise words, but hey, AOR made me do it.
PPS: do that funky arm-waving thing Neal! Love this version.
*at #32 since you ask, sandwiched between Legs Diamond and Black Sabbath; that hasn’t aged massively well, although it is interesting how much we now, post-grunge, worship Sabbath which we certainly didn’t when the list was compiled back in 1988. Maybe I’ll do a post on this list?
**It still twists my melon that Journey featured roughly 1/4 of classic era Santana for 6 albums; I mean this is the dude who sang ‘No One To Depend On’!
^rumours that I am complicated, tense and vulgar are to be shunned.
^*who can forget the administration having to cap in hand to Sesame Street to ask for a short-term, lower-case ‘g’ loan?
*^my beloved 80’s glam rock was exactly the same thing, just with tighter pants; a LOT tighter pants.
